Someone answered the question of meaning and value in the last century:
The most precious thing a person has is life, and life is given only once. One should live so that, looking back, one will not regret having wasted the years in idleness, nor feel ashamed of having lived meanly and vulgarly.
Of course, ordinary people like us do not necessarily possess such a lofty outlook. My own answer is the unity of knowledge and action.
What does that mean? Your actions and your understanding of the world are consistent; you do not do things that betray yourself.
If you want to relax, you will not choose exhausting work. If you want happiness, you will not do something you dislike. Looking back later, you will not regret spending time on something “meaningless”. The happiness you felt was itself part of your life. Happiness is meaning. Learn to accept the time you spent without value, because value and meaning are not the same thing.
When your actions and understanding are coherent, you will not consume yourself with regret over doing something you never wanted to do.
Society teaches countless people to demonstrate their value, preferably becoming a stock that keeps rising so they can justify their investors’ money. Few people tell you what your meaning is. That is the three ultimate philosophical questions:
Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?
A simple answer is to do what you like and gain the happiness that belongs to you. A more meaningful choice is the one described in How the Steel Was Tempered, the same choice made by earlier generations.
In short, do not wait until years later, facing changed people and circumstances, to remember an unfinished outing and regret: “It will never be like those carefree days of youth.”